Eritrean Refugees Under Attack in Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan
Eritreans Trapped in Sudan
By: Chloe Phely-Bobin*
After fleeing an oppressive military dictatorship, Eritreans are not safe in Ethiopia, Sudan, or South Sudan. At risk of forced deportation, human trafficking, disappearance, and other abuses and violence, Eritrean refugees require urgent humanitarian assistance.
The Eritrean military has conscripted children as young as 14 and men as old as 70 into indefinite national service, reports Dr. Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea. The military has deployed 16 and 17-year-old children into combat in Tigray and extrajudicially killed individuals that tried to escape from Tigray or training centers.
Among the most prominent human rights abuses are torture, forced disappearance, sexual violence perpetrated by government and military officials, arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detentions without access to legal counsel, and lack of religious liberty.
Leaving Eritrea for refuge elsewhere without an exit visa is against the law. The Eritrean government has a “shoot on sight” policy at the country’s border. Yet, Eritreans risk their lives escaping to Europe because of indefinite military service and arbitrary detention. Five thousand Eritreans leave the country each month, making Eritrea one of the greatest refugee producers in the world.
At least 149,000 Eritrean refugees lived in Ethiopia as of October 2020. Eritreans commonly fled to the neighboring country to escape human rights abuses. However, in early 2020, Ethiopian authorities halted registration programs for some categories of new arrivals. Two refugee camps in Ethiopia, Hitsats and Shimelba, were destroyed by the Eritrean military. That March, Ethiopia halted the ‘prima facie’ refugee status for Eritreans.
In late June 2023, Ethiopia expelled at least 423 Eritreans from its borders. Some Eritreans who Ethiopian forces did not deport were part of a group that registered in Ethiopia last year and paid three USD per day because they were in the nation “illegally.” These Eritreans who paid were not deported to Eritrea.
Forced family separation is increasingly common as authorities deport parents to Eritrea. Eritreans in Ethiopia are continually arrested and subject to prolonged detention for alleged violations of immigration law. They are detained without charge and do not have access to counsel and the judicial process.
TASSC interviewed George Ghebreslassie, an Eritrean-American activist and founder of Surbana Vision Media and Community Services, a nonprofit that provides Eritrean immigrants with temporary sanctuary and other services.
“These deported Eritreans did not expect to be forcibly removed from Ethiopia. They had been waiting for years in the country to be registered by UNHCR. However, UNHCR has not registered or welcomed new arrivals in the past three years,” said Ghebreslassie.
“Ethiopia is handing Eritreans to the Eritrean military at the border. Ethiopia does not seem to be safe for Eritrean asylum seekers,” according to Ghebreslassie. “As a result, Eritreans are becoming victims of human trafficking as they run away from Ethiopia out of desperation.”
UN Special Rapporteur Babiker and the UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea report that Eritreans forcibly returned to Eritrea are subject to torture, enforced disappearance, ill-treatment, trafficking, and arbitrary detention.
The United Nations reports that 126,000 Eritrean refugees live in Sudan, Eritrea’s neighbor to the northwest. These Eritrean refugees fled the same human rights abuses as the Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia.
Before the war in Sudan broke out in April 2023, Eritreans in Sudan had been forcefully detained and told to pay up to 500,000 Sudanese pounds to be released. The payment does not guarantee safety, and there are no written receipts. Therefore, the detainees, once released, may be held by other officers at any moment.
Some that could not afford to pay were detained for over six months and sold to human traffickers by Sudanese police. Surbana Vision Media and Community Services wrote an appeal and petition to these bribes signed by over 25,000.
Due to the ongoing civil war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, thousands of Eritreans are trapped in Khartoum without enough funds to escape. Unlike refugees from other countries, Eritreans do not have a government to protect them. Surbana is currently appealing more than one thousand cases for these desperate Eritreans, including sexually abused women, disabled families, and senior citizens, who could not afford to pay for transportation to be evacuated.
One Eritrean individual fled Sudan when the fighting broke out, arrived in Addis Ababa seeking safety, but was later arrested by Ethiopian authorities and deported to Eritrea. A family member contacted Surbana Vision Media and Community Services asking for assistance with an appeal to the Ethiopian government to stop the deportation. The Ethiopian government forcefully proceeded.
Today, Eritreans in Sudan are in significant danger of being killed, raped, and having their belongings confiscated. Ghebreslassie interviewed Eritrean mothers who were sexually abused in front of their children or taken forcefully from their children by militias. Though they are supposed to be able to access medical care within 72 hours of an assault, some women were in Khartoum for over ten days without medical assistance. Many fled to other countries to access care.
Many Eritrean refugees have disappeared on the way to Kassala, a city in eastern Sudan housing a refugee camp with United Nations assistance near the Eritrean border. The Eritrean government or human traffickers have likely captured the missing refugees, aided by Sudanese army troops.
Sudanese officers stopped a bus from Khartoum to Kassala, threatening refugees on board with deportation lest they pay $100-200. The close security and political ties between the governments of Eritrea and Sudan have historically made Sudan unsafe for Eritrean refugees.
Some Eritrean refugees in Sudan have been turned away from the camp at Kassala and sent to an area on the border called Gate 13. There, Eritrean security officials order many to cross into Eritrea. Sudan has deported more than 3,500 Eritreans into the Eritrean town of Teseney, where Eritrean forces imprisoned 95.
After fleeing abysmal human rights abuses in Eritrea and being met with targeted oppression and violence in Sudan, thousands of Eritrean refugees fled to South Sudan in hopes of safety.
Many Eritrean refugees in South Sudan are housed in an overcrowded refugee camp at the Paloich Airport. The camp has no toilets, running water, or kitchens. Eritreans cannot take flights to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, because the Eritrean government will not take responsibility for them. South Sudanese authorities forced some that made it to Juba back to Paloich.
Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan who have avoided forced repatriation are exceptionally vulnerable to criminal exploitation due to the absence of government support. Most notably, an Egyptian ring of Bedouin criminals is known to harvest organs from kidnapped refugees to sell on the black market.
TASSC strongly condemns the mistreatment of Eritrean refugees. Mass expulsions, forceful detentions, abuse, and human trafficking must cease immediately. Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan must prioritize humane and just policies for Eritreans in their countries. Cooperation and adherence to international law by all parties must commence, lest widespread human rights abuses continue.
TASSC also condemns the Eritrean government and military’s treatment of its citizens. We urge the state of Eritrea to respect human rights and prioritize the safety of individuals.
We at TASSC are especially concerned about Eritrean torture survivors amidst the expulsions and forceful repatriation. International forces must collaborate to provide specialized support and resources for this vulnerable community.
*Chloe Phely-Bobin is a rising senior at the University of California at Berkeley and an Advocacy intern at TASSC